I Am Love

Vulture released the I Am Love trailer a few months ago with the following tease:

"There's a new trailer for I Am Love, in which Tilda Swinton plays a woman living in Milan who — well, the trailer for the thriller foregoes the usual exposition and just shows us frame after frame of stuff happening to Swinton in Italy (sex, betrayal, secrets, food, possibly international politics) along with critic quotes like, "See it by any means possible," which, by the time it appeared on the screen, was a completely unnecessary command. We have no idea what's going on here — and we can't remember the last time we could say that in this age of trailers that explain the entire movie. With all the food and scenery, this looks like the smart man's (or woman's) Eat, Pray, Love. We're there."

SO THERE! (I actually wish that the title was always written in the all caps "I AM LOVE", like SWINTON, to match those gorgeous text blocks denoting the passing of time throughout the film. "MILANO"; "QUATTRO GIORNI DOPO"; "LA PROSSIMA PRIMAVERA!", per esempio. Something to match John Adam's score of crescendos.)

Then, to boot, John offered his own tease after seeing this film over a year ago at Cannes and has been screaming in my ear 'SARAH YOU HAVE TO SEE SWINTON'S NEW ITALIAN FILM YOU'LL LOVE IT ITS SO GORGEOUS AND ABOUT FOOD AND TRAVEL AND SEX AND ITS JUST SO GREAT!!!!' several times a day since, thus clearly I was curious. Clearly. Well, I finally made it to BAM last night, two whole weeks afters its release date due to an annoyingly full schedule that I won't bore you with at this time. And a treat it was. I Am Love is the most enjoyable film I've seen in quite some time, and-- I'm going to be bold here-- a new favorite of mine.

Tilda Swinton is phenomenal in this role, which surprises absolutely no one. She is amazing in everything, especially in Lanvin, and this role was really created around her talent and verve. But the filming itself-- something I don't even usually notice-- drew in our greedy interest. The silver, the carpeting, the fountains, the gilded frames, the food--oh! the food! We were transformed right out of Brooklyn and into Milano, which previously held state as my least favorite Italian city, but I'm now dying to revisit. It was dazzling, this film. All of it.

The story itself followed time with the sweeping photography and classical score. We met a family, fell quickly in love with them, and patiently waited for the story to come to us. It didn't rush into anything, even giving pause to little events like polishing silver and making Russian soup. That soup came back to haunt us, though, snapping the brilliant direction of this young filmmaker into a spotlight. He's good.

Swinton's character is one we haven't seen her in lately. She played the stoic but kind matriarch of a seemingly generous and functional family. They are wealthy, yes, but they treat their help with respect, and they love each other deeply. She remains poised yet natural (like the donkey, remember?) until absolutely necessary to come undone. I loved her relationship with her daughter, and with her housekeeper Ida, didn't you? Without it, we may have hated her structure and her control, but with it, we were generous with what turned into a disastrous decision. It was her acting that convinced us to offer her character grace.

This trick of attributing superhuman characteristics (beauty, poise, supreme control) to a protagonist and then making her vulnerable through love is a literary trick as old as the Greeks. F. Scott Fitzgerald would have loved this little tale of exploding wealth, don't you think? Though perhaps he would have captured our goddess at the end instead of sending her shimmering into the masses. I did love this ending, though. Alas--love is the great equalizer, and it makes the viewer less resentful of a supremely gifted hero.

***If you're interested in reading a review much more well written and slightly less self involved than my own, bounce over to Anthony Lane's review 'Second Helpings' in the New Yorker. Never disappointing.

SWINTON in NY Mag

Great SWINTON article in this week's NY Mag. I read the page-long piece three times on the train this morning, as I knew that anything I read after this article would probably be a disappointment. Highlight:

"If one has to be banal and think of a favorite filmmaker, mine is Robert Bresson, who so often looks at people who have never seen themselves onscreen and who of course made a film about a donkey, which I think is the greatest performance ever. The donkey. That’s what one should aspire to be: the donkey.”

Well said, SWINTON, well said.

Io Sono L'Amore

SWINTON is back! Clearly I will be seeing this film. John already has-- he saw it in Cannes or Sundance or whatever other amazing place he goes to see films that isn't the IFC like everyone else. This was before he MET Swinton and changed both of our lives forever.


Anyway... from NY Mag's Vulture:

There's a new trailer for I Am Love, in which Tilda Swinton plays a woman living in Milan who — well, the trailer for the thriller foregoes the usual exposition and just shows us frame after frame of stuff happening to Swinton in Italy (sex, betrayal, secrets, food, possibly international politics) along with critic quotes like, "See it by any means possible," which, by the time it appeared on the screen, was a completely unnecessary command. We have no idea what's going on here — and we can't remember the last time we could say that in this age of trailers that explain the entire movie. With all the food and scenery, this looks like the smart man's (or woman's) Eat, Pray, Love. We're there.

Lo Hoffman actually sent me this clip this morning with this tag: "One of your favorite things (Swinton!) and one of my favorite things (people being snarky about Eat Pray Love!)."

Thanks, Lo! And so true! Should we see this during our 36 hours of greatness in June?! Sometime between chocolate croissants and silent reading time? You think about that.

SWINTON at Sundance

So, Katie and I are sitting on my big brown Ikea couch (which Katie claims is gray and Annie claims is purple, but is CLEARLY chocolate brown) eating Raisin Bran for dinner and John calls to tell me that he is--right now-- at Sundance at a screening staring Tilda Swinton WITH Tilda SWINTON.

My life suddenly seems somewhat ordinary and incredibly lame and worthless. Just thought you might want to know.

(Updates to come, assuming that John does his job as a good friend and at least says hello, or curtseys, or whatever you do to SWINTON-Her-Highness in a moment of true humbling honor.)

To be continued...

Happy SWINTON Day!

Guess who's birthday we almost forgot!? SWINTON'S!!!!! Let's all celebrate by putting on our most avant garde skinny sweater-dress-bustier and toast with something much more interesting than champagne, like absinthe. Or Turkish delight.

Then let us all gather together to protest something really important... like Roman Polanski's arrest! Or Donald Trump's horrifying golf course. Better yet, lets visit her group art exhibition at the adorably named LaMaMa Galleria in the Village this weekend. I'll be there, absinthe in tow.

Happy Birthday, Tilda. Here's to 49 more.

SWINTON: A Pilgrimage

Glory be, I didn't realize how desperately in need of a SWINTON update we were until my new neighbor John sent me a link to this website. Thank you, SWINTON, once again, for never disappointing us with your bizarre and awesome projects.

In case you are too lazy to visit the website or read the surrounding press, I'll summarize. Dear Swinton has taken it upon herself to physically haul a 33.5-ton portable cinema along with about 40 other cinema enthusiasts (including Mark Cousins) through the Scottish Highlands for about a week, bringing independent film to a different village every night.

As stated on the site by Tilda herself,

Welcome to the state of cinema. We think you’ll like it here. You can be whoever you want to be in this special place. You can lose yourself in great glens, or lie on your belly on heather and peat and dip your lips into crystal clear mountain streams and drink ice-cold water. You might see a stag or eat fairy cakes.

We’re going to be doing something very romantic and passionate here. Because we love this place, its mackerel skies in November and its marmalade bracken, we are going to pull a 37 tonne cinema on wheels across it, from its crashing Atlantic waves to the dolphins of the Moray Firth. We’ll get hot and sweaty, or drenched with rain, and bitten by midges, and we might get blisters on our fingers and toes, but we’ll show flickering, splendid dream movies as we go, in a cockeyed caravan, like clowns or dafties, or kids. Please join our motley crew. Become a mendicant friar with us, in your mind — in Beijing or Vancouver, or Dakar or Tampere or Canterbury — by checking in to this wee site each day between 1st and 9th August 2009 to find out how our blisters are getting on, and by watching some of the movies we are showing.

Better still,

become a Fellow Traveller. Don a kilt and boots and bring a cheese sandwich and a tent, and walk this place of mountain streams and movie dreams in person.

Love from Mark Cousins and Tilda Swinton.

In honor of SWINTON and the fact that I will unfortunately be unable to attend this journey, I am going to try to use more words like 'wee' and 'cockeyed' and 'don' in my day to day conversations. It's really the least I can do.

SWINTON Watch 2009: Part III

11:04 AM Will: I SAW TILDA SWINTON EATING A BREAKFAST BURRITO THIS MORNING

me: shut up i dont believe you

Will: She was drinking a Diet Coke

And smoking a Marb Lite

me: WHERE!??!

Will: And wearing a bright green dress that looked like a hot air balloon

me: YES, Swinton, YES!!!!!!!!!!! Will... WHERE and WHY

Will: At a McDonald's in Bloomington I asked her if she was filming a movie here and she said "No, my laundry just isn't done at the Laundromat so I'm killing time."

me: what?!?!?!? you talked to her?!?!?

william this is HUGE.

Will: And then I said "Can you sign my Egg McMuffin wrapper?"

And she said "You fame-hungry commoner! No!"

He was lying. Will is a big fat liar. But it was really exciting for me for about two and a half minutes this morning and I must say-- I do want to live in a world where Tilda Swinton can be found at McDonalds eating breakfast borritos and smoking Marlboro Lites in a lime green hot air balloon dress saying things like 'fame-hungry commoner.' I want that world.

So it was a lovely little lie. And a girl can dream, right?

SWINTON Watch 2009: Part II

This Just In: A THIRD friend of mine has spotted SWINTON in the somewhat recent past. Ms. Allison Fry spotted SWINTON outside of the Bowery Hotel sometime last year. Note interview (read: gchat convo) below...

Allison: heyi've spotted tilda too4:16 PM

but like a year ago

me: what?! where?!?!?

Allison: some event at the bowery hotel. i was walking home to 4th st, she was in front of the bowery

4:17 PM me: uh, was she stunning? and weird looking?

Allison: yeah, a bit

i don't remember what she was wearing though

like a long skirt with a roomy jacket

There you have it, folks. 'like a long skirt with a roomy jacket.' She just never disappoints. Please send all updates and sightings my way. Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow. :)

Julia

Remember my slightly concerning SWINTON obsession? Just scroll down. Well, developments continue to unfold, the biggest being that TWO of my friends have seen her in person the past two weeks. Both John and Annie spotted dear Tilda at movie premieres, one in Cannes yesterday and the other in good old New York a week prior. My first question to both of them (as yours is too, I'm sure) is what was she wearing. A stunning Cabernet colored gown to one, and a burlap sack to the other, I am pleased to say.

But that isn't the point. The point is the film. I saw Julia last Saturday at the Angelika, where the soda is serve yourself, allowing as many refills as you please of your own flavor concoctions like 'half diet coke half regular coke' which is a Sarah Butler favorite (I love the Angelika.)

I first saw the Julia trailer with Alex a few weeks ago, and he predicted that the film would be a one woman show, its merit based solely on Swinton's performance. It might as well have been called Tilda. He was very right, as is always the case in matters such as this, but we both agreed it didn't discount the film as a whole.

The title character is a severe alcoholic turned kidnapper. I know. Its a little intense. And don't go in thinking it will be a nice little afternoon at the movies, this one's a doosey-- edge of your seat, hand over mouth, eyes wide in panic.

Most of the SWINTON press interviews for Julia centered around the alcoholism aspect of the film as if the addiction was the main plot. She tried to sidestep much of this focus during these interviews, and I can see why. The alcohol played part in her character's placement in life and therefore the crime but wasn't necessarily addressed as an issue. It was a trait, a costume. But it wasn't the movie, not in the least. The film was about The Human Condition, as so many good films are. It was about how far we can be pushed, and what we will do midst the pushing.

SWINTON herself was just ravishing in this role... she said in the fore mentioned interviews that she has been waiting and wanting to play a woman so catastrophically flawed and that Eric Zonca finally gave her the girl she was looking for. It isn't what we expect from SWINTON. She wasn't buttoned up, confident, snappy, and cold as she does so well-- she was messy, stumbling, and crass.

The costumes, for one, were shocking to see on our dear burlap sack fashionista... tiny slip dresses, big earrings, lots of makeup, slutty bras. We have NEVER seen SWINTON like this. She in fact often faltered toward 'drag queen' due to her northern androgynous features. This perhaps aided in our discomfort with the character, though I doubt it was planned.

SWINTON nailed the train wreck as she intended. The entire film was just mess in plot and circumstance. It began in a bar and ended in the slums of Tijuana, tumbling through the desert in between. It was uncomfortable, it was dangerous, it was thrilling. And our leading lady was an absoulte steam engine. And even when falling off her tracks, we could do nothing but lean into every word, every wrong decision, licking our lips for more.

SWINTON

Oh, SWINTON. You have improved my life in so many ways. I have become so enamored by your bizarre sense of the avant-garde that the medium size blog pic wouldn't do, I actually chose large just now when every other post has gotten medium. Only for you, SWINTON.

Tilda Swinton, or SWINTON as she has been deemed worthy, entered my life via the Fug Girls a few weeks ago. Since then I have been slightly obsessed (quite obsessed) with reading up on her personal life and professional activity. As Annie would say, the girl is a Looney Toon. As Katie would say, she's total nuts. Nuts4Nuts, actually (which is Katie's favorite food. And if you live in New York you think that's really funny). And we love her.

For proof, enter seven reasons that SWINTON has improved humanity:

1. This outfit that she wore to the 2008 Oscars when she won for Best Supporting Actress. What at first glance is nothing but a garbage bag for an amputee is actually a statement of high fashion and well thought genuis. Lanvin commented that he made this gown specifically for Tilda Swinton because he knew she would win and therefore wanted to give the world nothing but an arm to hold that statue. Its my favorite Oscar gown to date.

2. She founded a film fest for which this is the Wikipedia description:

A while ago, on an impulse, a quixotic seizure, Tilda Swinton rented a ballroom in an old Victorian stone building in Nairn in the North East of Scotland, a seaside town where Charlie Chaplin used to holiday and which has a balmy microclimate.

After renting the Ballerina, Swinton took Mark Cousins to see the place – they were making a wee film about being 8 1/2 and falling in love with cinema – and he loved it and so, together, they dreamt up a festival of beanbags on the floor, that would run 8 1/2 days, that would be a 6 out of ten on the grunge scale, that would serve home-made cakes and fish finger sandwiches, whose tickets would be £3/£2,or free if you took a tray of home-baking, and that would transform the Ballerina into something like a ghost train.

She is SO FREAKING COOL. Also, did SWINTON herself write that paragraph for Wikipedia?! Sounds like it. And if not, can I PLEASE hire whomever did to write my life's story someday? At any rate, I want to go to this festival very, very badly.

3. She lives in Nairn, a small escapist town in the Scotish Highlands, far away from Hollywood and the British press. That is a good enough point on its own, but to top it, she lives with her Husband who is a very fabulous painter, and her twin son and daughter Xavier and Honor. (Aren't those just the most perfect SWINTON names you could think of!?). And if THAT weren't enough, she also spends much of her time with her husband-approved-lover, another painter named Sandro. Therefore, her marriage is polyamorous but platonic. When asked about the situation, SWINTON answers, "It’s the way we have been for nearly four years. I’m very fortunate. It takes some extraordinary men to make a situation like that work." Also note that she uses the word 'extraordinary' which is really cool.

4. The fore-mentioned Fug Girls once spoke of SWINTON like this:

I've often felt like SWINTON would be a welcome addition to the fictional team of celebrity life coaches I have assembled for myself. Like, Tim Gunn is clearly on that team, because he would give me kind yet constructive criticism whenever I did something that concerned him. And Kelly Clarkson would be there for when I decided I needed a super-catchy anthem about a boy I hate (or love to hate. Or hate to love). And SWINTON would be around in case I needed someone to grab me and say, "TREASURE THE AVANT-GARDE. I CAN PULL IT OFF AND SO CAN YOU!" (She would be wrong about my being able to pull it off, but it would be nice and supportive.)

I couldn't agree more, Fug Girls. I just couldn't agree more.

5. In addition to being an absolutely extraordinary (see, I can use the word too, SWINTON!) actor, SWINTON is also a performance artist. What type of performance artist, you ask? Well...

A few years ago she slept (or pretended to sleep) in a glass case for a few weeks for public viewing in London. That's right. SHE SLEPT IN A GLASS CASE FOR A FEW WEEKS FOR PUBLIC VIEWING IN LONDON. Can you see any other actor taking this leap into the deeper meaning of performance? Like, can you see Jennifer Aniston in this box? I love crazy art like this. And I love you, SWINTON, for being this crazy.

6. This photo spread in Another magazine. Thank you, fashion, for allowing this to happen. She looks coo-coo-crazy and LOVES fashion, but only super intense avant-garde fashion like Victor & Rolf and Lanvin. She likes wearable art and isn't afraid of looking a bit off. (Also, she kind of looks like a mix between Clay Aiken and a super pale alien but somehow manages to be jaw-droppingly beautiful and chic at the same time. Extraordinary.)

7. I recently had a conversation with my sister Laura in which I was a little down and confused about my life until I remembered SWINTON. We both decided that if Tilda Swinton had the same problem she would never waste precious brain power and emotional energy contimlating it. Move on, she would say. Walk proud and unashamed and embrace the avant-garde! (In my mind she is contastantly reminding us to embrace the avant-garde.) Laura was laughing so hard she was in tears that I found my strength in Tilda Swinton, but whatever. Everyone needs a muse.